The future of Boston depends on its ability to prepare its youth to succeed. Yet, many challenges remain before all of Boston’s youth will be able to realize their full potential.

Toward this end, we have identified four areas of focus:

Boston Public Schools The Boston Public Schools (BPS), which enroll nearly 80% of Boston’s children, are the primary focus of our education investments. A central area of concern is new teacher training, with the emphasis on the quality of classroom instruction and an eye toward improving teacher retention. Early Education The importance of quality early education has been well documented, and Boston is fortunate to have a diverse set of providers and a strong infrastructure of support. Our focus is on ensuring quality facilities and on the advocacy needed to make these programs available to all Boston’s children.

Alternative Approaches Whether private or public, we support community-based schools that demonstrate that children from all backgrounds can achieve high standards. They are nimble laboratories to test innovative educational approaches and they can offer the instructional diversity to match different learning styles. We support these schools and particularly the transfer of their best practices to the larger educational community. Out of School Time Children spend more time out of school than in it. We believe that organized and effective out-of-school activities help create better students and citizens. Our present focus is on collaborative efforts to build a quality after school system.

In working in these areas, we feel that Boston’s educational achievements will ultimately be determined by the effectiveness of the collaboration among a complex system of stakeholders. Many organizations and individuals — educators, parents, City Hall, the Board of Education, the Teachers’ Union, academic researchers, philanthropic organizations, nonprofits, and for-profits—are all involved and ultimately interdependent.

Barr’s approach to change is well suited to such complex systems. In tandem with our investments in grantees, we are working to enhance coordination and the sharing of knowledge among stakeholders.

For more information about our thinking on how we can make and measure change in our areas of interest, please visit the pages dedicated to each initiative.